New Bio Building is On Schedule, Budget

Construction of the new biology building is going well, according to John
D. Macomber, president of George B. H. Macomber Co., the company
constructing the new building.

"MIT assembled a good team of owner representatives, architects, and
contractors," Macomber said. The $70 million building is currently under
budget and on schedule, he said.

In addition, Ames Street is expected to reopen on schedule by Dec. 1, after
the completion of the underground tunnel connecting the new building and
Building E19, according to Francis A. Lawton, special assistant to the
senior vice president and project manager for the new building at MIT.

Construction crews have finished laying down sewer lines, fiber-optic
cable, gas lines, and water lines, Lawton said. They have also poured the
first casing of concrete for the wall of the tunnel, he added.

The Ames Street tunnel is one of two tunnels connecting the biology
building to existing buildings; the other tunnel will connect to Building
66.

Research biologists from Buildings 16, 18, 56, E17, E25, and the Center for
Cancer Research are scheduled to move into the new building by April 1994,
according to Lawton.

Site work for the project began in summer of 1991, and construction began
later that fall.

The biology building is "an advanced, state-of-the-art facility, built to
accommodate the needs of today and tomorrow," Macomber said.

"MIT went way out of its way to prepare for the future" in regards to the
new biology building, Macomber said.

The interior of the building was customized around the equipment and layout
required for cutting-edge research. But as more modern equipment becomes
available, and as faculty members come and leave, the building's final
plans have had to be reworked.

"We fully understood that there might be changes in the faculty," Lawton
said. "You design for one person and redesign for the next person in line."
This process is part of the course of any construction, whether it be for a
biology building or otherwise, he said.

There were also some problems with the physical construction of the
building. "Initially we had problems with the soil. The clay [was] not
quite as stiff as we thought it was," Lawton said.

The moisture in the clay is due to the high water table, which is about 10
feet down, Lawton said. This is because the land was once covered in water.
"At one time there used to be docks all the way up to Main Street," Lawton
said.

Building 66 is simply "a large concrete boat" sitting on a slab of concrete
about five feet thick, Lawton said. The new biology building is built
similarly, with no piles in its foundation.

Old faces, new building

George B. H. Macomber Co., established in 1904, has taken six projects at
MIT, including Rotch Library, Building E17, and the Martin Mechanical
Institute for Engineering Design in Building 3.

The architects of the new building, Goody, Clancy, and Associates, have
also done previous work for MIT, including designing the Whitehead
Institute for Biomedical Research and major renovations for the Center for
Cancer Research.

The new biology building has no other name yet, although "If you're willing
to give $50 million, we'll name it after you," Lawton said.

The missing name should not trouble students and staff, however. The
building has been assigned its number -- Building 68.